BlueLyon

Also another big game, another poor game from Cesc, even if he played only 50min. He definately needs to be more decisive in big games and control tempo. The way he gets bypassed by opponent and he doesnt even run after him is ridiculous and thats why our pivot now with out of form Matic lets anything pass through. Oscar was poor with his passing, shooting and crossing too, but improved late on.

Iva is soo poor in defense its not even funny anymore. But then he goes on to score another liverlol winner, that serbian legend.

Brilliant match but plenty of room for improvement. Like how he goes in every duel very strong and dynamic unlike Cahill, Iva or even Terry who back off too much

Love his fearless march in duel and even if opponent bypasses him, he continues tracking him down. I dont know why people still complain about passing and shooting, it was never Ramires strength. But his power and pace is clearly required in our midfield in big games and he adds just that.

Why he has such bad luck? If he was just bit more clinical or gk wasnt pulling the save of his life, he would have 10 more goals at least. That run was just unreal.

Matic had few hot and cold games recently though. He makes some fantastic tackles but also loses possesion with bad pass or gets overrun in same game. Thats a bit reason why our defense aint as strong as before. He needs to get back to his best, but I wonder how will he handle another hard 90min vs city.

Yesss we are in final! Ref was terrible, such a twat. Im just glad liverpool lost, its always a special pleasure beating dirty scum. Zouma had good game, Hazard was taking them on rollercoaster again and Costa put a good fighting performance (he is cunt too but I dont care he is our cunt) Just hope we wont be too tired for City now.

On the other hand, Arsenal bench probably has more minutes than their starters hahah

They lost 3 english players they brought 2 new foreign (plus one english) and they are higher than last year. Well...english football needs big change if they want to create any world class players in future.

Not gonna happen unless he forces exit by not extending contract or we pay 50m+ for him.

Hopefuly 3rd or 4th. They deserve it. Plus anything that can kick United or Arsenal lower in table is great.

The high pressing midfield and defense that backs off creates quite big gap in midfield I guess. And it doesnt help that we dont have pacy powerful runner in pivot. While Matic and Cesc works most time, if they get beaten by pacy player, no one will catch him. Thats why Yaya is so important in city, he adds power and pace to their midfield. Or Essien back in time for us. Real under Mou with Xabi Alonso and Modric/Khedira had same problems too. They got exposed in middle many times. Yet under Ancelotti, their defense and Alonso become more responsive and proactive Think this got to do with Jose setup and/or having wrong players in defense.

Just been thinking that haha And considering our 'luck', it will happen just that.

Yeah because Neuer scored shitload of them goals. Ronaldo and Messi are winning balon dors because they are simply best. Not just because goals. Those two are best players and thats why they win it. Sneider or Ribery or Neuer had successful team runs, but individualy, Messi or Ronaldo were better. Its not just because of the goals scored. Hazard has many levels to climb and he can do that without scoring many goals. Few more key actions yes, but he doesnt have to score 20 or 30 goals. If we win PL, CL, and Hazard plays key role there, he will be among best. Same goes for his performances for belgium. When will people understand goals aint everything. Cannavaro, Zidane etc never scored many goals yet won the award.

And some people said Cesc was the best signing we ever made... You see player like Drogba once in lifetime. From beggining to end, what he did was amazing. When players like Lamps do what he did, the appreciation towards Drogba is even bigger. When he came here again and played poorly in first few games, I crticized him, but now I have to say its just pleasure to see him here, regardless of his form and ability. For 24m, you dont get much better. King of finals, scored when it was most neccessary, but he was far more important than just goals. I realy wish if he ends career this season, lets bring another trophy for him. Hopefuly he can bag a winner against City, United or Arsenal, that would be unreal. King.

Would be good if we sell Salah and Schurrle to bring Cuadrado and Sissoko. Not gonna happen, but it would give us plenty of options. While Sissko can play anywhere he is best in RM/LM and he would play there most of time. But if either Cuadrado and Willian is unavailable, than he can jump in too. He would add some character and power to side, but he will be very expensive and it probably wont happen. Sissoko is more than good to start for us in PL games, question is if he can improve and play in CL too.

And Benatia.

They are both in same boat when they run in counter attacking action. Difference is that Cuadrado makes good decision, while Willian fucks up most times. Sure their attacking rate will drop here due to more defending, but WHEN they havw ball in attack, it should be no excuse that Willian loses ball because he also has defensive duties. He loses ball because he makes poor decision. I hope Cuadrado is different and from what I saw, he is.

Sanchez says hi

Scouting Ntep probably.

We will be ''negotiating'' with Shakhtar until Fiorentina drops their price for Cuadrado

Everyone saying we should wait for summer when will be more options, but who exactly will be available then? Apart from Turan, I dont find other ''quality'' players. And dont even start with Bale, Reus, Sanchez. More chance of Hazard leaving too, than those coming. While the likes of Pedro, Candreva etc will be still available then and we could easily snatch them for their price.

Did well at WC though... "There's two things about a bench player - get 15 minutes and impress, or get 15 minutes and be dog turd and show you are just a bench warmer." The problem here is that we seem to have and buy only players who do jack shit in those 15min they get. It would be great if we had winger on bench who could prove to be good enough to replace Willian. However, no matter how average Willian plays and wastes every attack, there is still no other player in this team to replace him from starting spot. Thats worrying.

Agree with second part and like I said, if we cant get Cuadrado or someone similar, just dont sell anyone or buy anyone. About Cuadrado and Costa, well its true I only saw Cuadrado few times, but Costa almost never. But juding by their profile (league they play, opinions from other fans who watch them etc), I would say Cuadrado is much better option than Costa. What Cuadrado gives is certainly big rival for Willian spot. And probably the winner of the two. Costa on other hand, will take either Salah place or Schurrle place. And when Cuadrado costs 35 and Costa 20, I will take the risk of those 15m. Cuadrado is in similar levels as Sanchez, but different abilities. Arsenal was buying Salah's and Costa's for ages, except they bought them younger and cheaper. With Sanchez, they paid more, but got much better player. I think to improve us, we will simply have to pay big money on that winger and right now Cuadrado is best bet. Reus will never get here, besides there is no guarantee he will succeed. While Bale, Sanchez,...wont even be available for us anytime soon. We already missed on Sanchez last summer, if we end up with Costa and Cuadrado becomes hit in PL/La liga, everyone will be kicking his head here.

Well I think its been more than three games, including Sunderland, Newcastle away and even Newcastle home, we werent exactly solid as we used to be. True that, but in some games we keep it clean, in other, we play like wreck in defense. And it should not be happening because we have experienced players there who shouldnt be as inconsistent. And if you ask me honestly, Mourinho and nice possesion football wont get along. He aint attacking mastermind that could setup our attack in way that we will score 5 goals per game and win, regardless if we concede 3 or 4. What our current system looks like is that we try to attack and keep possesion, but when opponent press us, we cant do anything in attack. And at same time, our defense gets exposed. Even if we play defensive, like vs Liverpool. I prefer more attacking football, but it feels like we will stuck somewhere between. Unless Mou will be given few years to completely overhaul this team, but its obvious he will be sacked sooner or later if he wont bring trophy (not that I want him sacked or anything). I know we never played nice football, but at least we got results (most of time). Now we have issues against small games, big games, away games, rotation. It doesnt help either that Mou wants to play ''atractive football'' and brings players for such game in Cesc, Costa etc, but at same time goes extremely defensive in many games still. It makes no point. Either do one or other. Its good to have plan A and plan B, but going from one extreme to another is bad. Parking bus with fancy players wont work and I bet on that. And the problem is that if we play defensive, our attack isnt improving on cohesion, while playing offensive, our defense has to completely adjust and obviously, we play like shit in defense then because no one is used to be that exposed. Yeah its not exactly every game, but becoming more and more often. I still didnt overcome the fact that we were leading against City, United, Tottenham, Liverpool and not win in any of those games in the end, considering we played better last season and should improve this term, but thats not the case against big teams so far.